Tickets are $45 for the first floor and $20 for the balcony. All tickets are available online, by phone at 412.622.8866, or at the Byham Theatre Box Office on August 31st between 5:30 and 7:30 pm.

Our Host:

Kate Tellers is a performer (Upright Citizens Brigade, Off Broadway), writer (the Gorgeous Ladies of Comedy, xojane.com) and teacher whose students range from fledgling eight-year-old stand-up comedians to Fortune 500 CEOs. In 2007 she discovered The Moth and has been a part of it ever since. She lives in Brooklyn with her furry husband, baby and dog.

Our Storytellers:

Adam Edmund Linn is an American author and essayist. His work has been described as "brilliantly illuminating that poignant and often humorous intersection, where everyday life veers past the absurd and into the profound." Linn's recent work includes the satirical novel American Sexy. Several of his personal essays have been adapted for audio broadcast, airing on NPR's Snap Judgment, and the Yum's the Word Podcast. Linn is currently working on his memoir, Seeing Life, which explores the challenges of growing up without a father, going blind, and eventually becoming a father himself. In addition to his writing, Linn is an award winning director: his debut film, Smell the Light, screened at festivals around the world and on Canadian television. He lives in Manhattan with his wife Juliana, daughters Zoe and Isabelle, and Nadia, their lovable, but intensely co-dependent German Shepherd.

Abbas Mousa emigrated to the United States in 2009 from Iraq through the Special Immigrant Program for Iraqi translators and was granted U.S. citizenship. Mousa received his Master's degree in Economics in the summer of 2015 and now works as an Economist for the Department of Commerce. Mousa is currently writing his memoir and has two more novels to work on after finishing his first book.

Catherine Palmer is an audiologist and University professor. Her stories center around well-meaning parenting gone wrong resulting in various adventures around the world. She grew up in the Boston area and lived in Taos New Mexico, Long Beach California, and Chicago Illinois before settling in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania where she and her husband have raised their two boys. She is a frequent storyteller at the Pittsburgh Moth StorySLAM.

Kelly e Parker is a mother, grandmother and partner, drummer, poet, jewelry maker, metalworker, crocheter, welder and professional driver. Kelly was born in Portsmouth, VA, raised in Washington, PA and became aware in Pittsburgh, PA. She started her work as an advocate for women (wimmin) and children, working first in domestic violence at age 17 and continued Social Services work in addiction, sexual assault, prevention and intervention with youth for the next 35 years. Kelly began using drumming as a means to work with at risk youth and families in 1989; through that work she discovered a love of African Drumming and culture. In 2005 she traveled to Africa to study drumming and drum making. She formed Abafasi ("Many Wimmin"), an all wimmins drumming group in 2006. Abafasi has performed in and out of Pittsburgh for the past 10 years, opening for artists such as Ngtozake Shange, Angela Davis, Maya Angelou and many others.

Suzi Ronson has worked in various capacities for well-heeled individuals as a household manager, music producer and consultant in New York City, the Hamptons, Florida and Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. She is a singer-songwriter who performs only for friends. She also loves horses and traveled on the horse riding circuit in the U.S. with a young girl who was competing. Suzi lives in the West Village of New York City, while her daughter and the rest of her family live in London. She swears she'll go back one day.

Our Musician:

Sena Jane Thompson is a Minnesota native who studied Suzuki violin from the age of three. She went on to earn a Performance Degree, studying classical styles with Marilyn Bos and Dr. Harry Dunscombe as well as composition with Steve Heitzeg. During this time she also attended the International Aspen Music Festival. In addition to her classical studies, Thompson studied jazz with violinist John Blake, the Turtle Island String Quartet, and Dr. Billy Taylor. She has also toured with the roots rock group The Urban Hillbilly Quartet and the new music ensemble Anahada Nada. Currently, she is a freelance performer and maintains a private studio in her home. Her most recent experience includes performing and recording with Pittsburgh's Eclectic Laboratory Chamber Orchestra and with jazz artist Carolyn Perteete. In her free time Ms. Thompson is songwriter, singer, and keyboardist for the band Viola Formica.

About The Moth

The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling, and a recipient of a 2012 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation MacArthur Award for Creative & Effective Institutions (MACEI). Through its ongoing programs—The Moth Mainstage, The Moth StorySLAMs, The Moth Community & Education Programs, and Moth Corporate Programs—The Moth has presented more than 17,000 stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. The Moth podcast is downloaded over 30 million times a year, and the Peabody Award-winning The Moth Radio Hour, produced by Jay Allison and presented by PRX, The Public Radio Exchange, airs weekly on over 400 radio stations nationwide. The Moth Mobile App for iOS and Android, and the international bestseller, The Moth: 50 True Stories (Hachette), are available now. themoth.org

Listen to The Moth Radio Hour in Pittsburgh, Sundays from 6 to 7 pm on 90.5 WESA. Support for The Moth Mainstage provided by The Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation.